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Employers Find Benefits with PHRs


March 10, 2008

Hospitals and doctors may not be adopting personal health records rapidly, but that hasn't stopped some employers and individuals from using them, according to a story in Employee Benefit News, a SourceMedia publication. Some PHRs now are being paired with human resources communication portals and online libraries of health information for workers.

High-tech company EMC Corp., Hopkinton, Mass., with 22,000 benefits-eligible U.S. employees, first implemented a personal health record in 2004. The PHR combines data sent by health plans to data warehouse manager Ingenix of Eden Prairie, Minn., and also incorporates a partnership with New York-based WebMD Health Corp. to provide employees with added information on a variety of health care topics.

Each employee's PHR is Web-based and entirely personalized with data that the employee enters or uploads. The PHR includes data from health risk assessments, inpatient visits, surgeries and prescription information. When multiple drugs with potentially dangerous interactions are prescribed, patients receive an electronic alert.

In the coming year, the PHR will be made portable, and biometric data will be included. In early 2009, lab test results will be added, as well as a section for imaging from X-rays or MRIs.

"We took a very strategic approach [to the issues of health care management]," says Delia Vetter, senior director of benefits and programs for EMC. She estimates that implementing a PHR will take between three and five years for each employer as they gradually roll out new technology.

Vetter is quick to stress that the PHR is a tool to improve the overall health of a workplace and to make employees more educated consumers.

For the full story, visit benefitnews.com.

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